All Posts
The biggest but unrecognised challenge facing DMOs today
This post was originally published as a guest post on DestinationThink! here. After interviewing dozens of destination marketing leaders, Destination Think! identified fifty individual, albeit interrelated, challenges facing the industry. They then grouped these...
Do planet and profit need to be at odds?
DestinationThink! is getting ready for its Summit in New York in October (pdf) and one of the themes is titled Profit and Planet. Partly in preparation, the following discussion formed the third in a series of interviews conducted by David Archer of Destination Think!...
Has the growth of tourism become a wicked problem?
This post describes the characteristics of “wicked problems” and suggests that given forecasts of tourism’s continued growth, the term might apply. The designation is important because wicked problems cannot be solved in conventional ways. A new kind of thinking is required.
Why Tourism Needs More Meerkats and Fewer Ostriches
The capacity to thrive in periods of change develops when people behave like meerkats and look out for one another and the group. Given a potential unwillingness to identify “over tourism” as a threat to tourism, it would appear there are more ostriches at work and we need more meerkats.
Travel + Social Good – It all starts with Why
On Wednesday of this week I set off for New York to join 150 people committed to figuring out how to make responsible tourism go mainstream at the Travel + Social Good 2016 Summit. I’m encouraged because it won’t be a talkfest but a re-design workathon. I am...
Future Prosperity Depends on Managing Success Today
Almost for as long as tourism has existed, we've heard the expression " don't kill the goose that lays the golden egg" yet over the same time has carried on growing regardless. It looks like 2016 will be the year when it becomes obvious that the golden eggs are...
Towards Opening a Sensible Debate on Tourism Growth
On April 19th, Jeremy Smith’s post on the WTM London blog, When will the tourism industry start talking sensibly about growth? generated a flurry of shares and the beginnings of a debate within the Responsible Networking Group on Facebook. Thank you Jeremy for raising...
On Being, Seeing, Then Doing – time to join up!
I recently spoke at the Adventure Travel World Summit 2013 in Namibia urging the members to respond to the acknowledgment made by the Secretary General of the UNWTO, Taleb Rifai, a year prior, that adventure travel was the future of tourism. I suggested that the...
Adventure in Namibia – proving the power of community based conservation and tourism
Excitement is mounting! In less than four hours I start my journey to Namibia to participate in the Adventure Travel Trade Association’s annual World Summit (2013). It's such a privilege for many reasons: 1. Namibia leads the world in wildlife conservancy because it...